


minute by minute

by strawberrv



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Minor Violence, Moon, based on the turn back time mv, yeah. they just be on the moon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24821602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberrv/pseuds/strawberrv
Summary: of all the things lucas was expecting to be behind his cell door as it slid open, a week and a half into his imprisonment, ten, holding a mess of respirators in his arms, was not one of them.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Liu Yang Yang/Wong Kun Hang | Hendery
Comments: 8
Kudos: 62





	minute by minute

**Author's Note:**

> hiiiiiiii lol this is just smth random i typed up in like an hour and it's not like... well thought out or .. good, but i hope u get smth out of it! just my littol take on the tbt mv :-)

of all the things lucas was expecting to be behind his cell door as it slid open, a week and a half into his imprisonment, ten, holding a mess of respirators in his arms, was not one of them.

space aliens, sure — this is the _moon,_ after all, but not ten. 

“what the hell,” is all he can think to say, and ten just rolls his eyes and tosses him one of the masks in his arms, readjusting his grip so they don’t all go toppling.

“come on,” he says, and lucas, responsive to that tone of voice as ever, scrambles up, wings aching as he unfolds them a little in their place under his tattered shirt. their captors had taken an interest in his feathery appendages from the moment they’d arrived; poking and prodding and taking measurements, so lucas has taken to keeping them tucked away lately.

as he turns the corner out into the hall, he feels for the first time in a few days like he might get to fly again. he looks to ten, who is furtively glancing around as they keep a quick down the metal halls.

“how’d you get out?” he asks, envisioning some sort elaborate deal or interrogation ten had turned in his favor, but ten just looks at him strangely, and holds up a transparent red rectangle, shining in the dim passing lights.

“swiped this yesterday during an examination. just been waiting for the right _time,”_ he says that last word oddly, then forces his eyes ahead of them again.

the first thing hendery says when they pull him out of the water is, “yang,” wetly, desperately. lucas brings his fist down between his shoulder blades until all the water comes up, while ten waits by the door, peering out into red light. 

“yangyang,” he says, again, with a tight grip on lucas’s forearm. lucas looks helplessly to ten, who is stalking over, gaze roving over hendery’s dripping form. he has all the respirators tucked under one arm, now, the other hand holding the rectangle of red glass. 

“that’s where we’re going next,” he says, tossing hendery another one of the masks.

and so they do, once hendery stops shivering and starts walking. his hair is still sopping wet, but he just lets the water run down his face, eyes darting this way and that as they pass doors and grates and pipes and steam. the moon is the fucking worst, lucas decides, as they round another corner and run directly into dejun.

“ow,” he says, disgruntled, falling backwards onto the metal grated floor.

lucas offers him a hand, while hendery stares. ten just sighs, sounding almost relieved. 

“how the fuck did _you_ escape,” hendery says incredulously, and dejun gives him a sharp look, taking lucas’s hand and getting to his feet.

“ten’s not the only one who can _do_ things, you know.”

“yes i am,” says ten, immediately.

dejun rolls his eyes and mutters, “bolted as soon as they took off the electric cuffs.”

ten scoffs and hendery says, weakly, “what were you gonna do?”

“he was _going_ to run into us, and now he has, so we gotta get to yangyang before — well. we should just get there soon.”

lucas frowns at ten; his more cryptic moods are always confusing, but doesn’t say anything as the four of them head down more of the maze-like structure, until they finally come to a darkened cell. ten presses the keycard to the scanner, and it beeps cheerfully, the door sliding open. there’s no more light inside than was indicated, and ten steps carefully into the room. hendery stands, at the threshold, white-faced, shivering. ten glances behind him, and smiles a little at hendery, offering a hand.

“he’ll be fine. i made sure of it, this time.”

and, incredibly, he is. they all saw what happened to yangyang when they were captured, the — electrocution, the beating. he’d tried to get back to hendery, to run. lucas had sat in his cell that first night and just _hoped._ hendery might’ve already been busy choking on water at that point.

when they come upon him, yangyang is curled up in a corner of the room, and hendery immediately collapses to his knees next to him. dejun watched, grim, while ten looks out at the door.

yangyang rises, slowly, to sit upright, and hendery cups his face, says, “yang, it’s me, it’s me,” and lucas looks away, because he feels like he should.

ten only has three respirators left, and he keeps looking at them, checking that they’re still there.

sicheng’s chains take approximately forever to untangle, but ten and dejun’s deft hands get it done, while hendery and yangyang hold each other, too weak to stand. lucas takes up ten’s position at the door, and he thinks of outside, of their ship, of home. his wings twitch under his shirt, and he shudders as he remembers the feeling of other people touching them, folding and unfolding them, twisting them painfully to see how far they’d go in any direction. he jumps when ten touches his back, and he turns to see sicheng, tired but upright, with hendery and yangyang in similar positions. 

dejun just says, “kun,” and they begin down the corridors again. 

kun is. in bad shape. they all are, but he’s not even… coherent.

“damn it,” ten says.

“ _damn_ it.”

dejun kneels next to their pilot, their _pilot_ who is supposed to have sharp eyes and a sharp mind, who is now heaving sharp, wheezing laughs at them. he’s cut, scratched, and bruised just about everywhere. lucas doesn’t know what they did to him. he doesn’t know what they _would’ve_ done to the rest of them. but he gets the feeling that ten does.

“this is… this is as far as i’ve gotten. i don’t know if i can do it again,” he murmurs, mostly to himself, but he’s closest to lucas. 

lucas catches his arm, holds it until ten meets his eyes.

“is this the best case scenario.”

ten blinks at him.

“wh-what? i — i —”

“is this the _best_ case scenario,” lucas asks again, trying to convey… something, he doesn’t even know what, with just his eyes. maybe just, understanding.

ten looks around, slowly, at each of them. then, back to lucas.

“we’re all alive,” he says, just above a whisper.

“that’s. better than most of the time.” 

lucas lets go of his arm, nods once, and says, “let’s go, then.”

as soon as he’s done speaking, the alarms start.

as they run, bathed in the roving red lights, the screeching, unpleasant shrieks of the alarms, they fit the respirators to their faces. sicheng helps kun with his. hendery seems to find the clean air novel, perhaps still waiting to be held underwater again at any moment.

but they make it. they run, and they run, and they all make it save ten, and the door is closing, and lucas is about to go back, to get himself crushed, but ten drops to the floor, and slides under just as the door seals.

lucas collapses against the side of the building, and the dead air of lunar atmosphere is filled with the sounds of them all gulping down breaths from the respirators. then, they stand, just stand, on the surface of the moon.

“jesus christ,” ten says.

“i’m never time traveling again.”

**Author's Note:**

> donate to blm [here](https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/)
> 
> find me on twt @rouxberrv  
> or on my main acc @lookslikerain


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